TAYLOR HOOTON FOUNDATION STATEMENT ON ARBITRATION RULING

McKinney, TX (January 12, 2014) – The Taylor Hooton Foundation, widely acknowledged as the leader in the advocacy against appearance and performance enhancing drug use by the youth of America, has issued the following statement in response to requests for comment on Saturday’s arbitration ruling –

“As I said at the time of Major League Baseball’s suspension of Alex Rodriguez last August, I am disappointed and saddened by the decisions Alex has made that led to this ruling,” said Don Hooton, Taylor Hooton Foundation president. “The Taylor Hooton Foundation fully supports the efforts made by Major League Baseball to eradicate illegal anabolic steroids and other appearance and performance enhancing drugs from the game.

“I remain concerned, however, that we Americans continue to focus on the shiny objects, those few professional athletes who get caught using PEDs while over a million and a half of our middle- and high school children admit to using these drugs that are illegal without a prescription and have been proven to be seriously harmful to their health and wellbeing.

“Let’s put that 1.5-million number into perspective.” Hooton continued. “If, hypothetically, every single Major League player was using anabolic steroids, it wouldn’t fill a typical local high school football stadium. Yet, there are enough of our children using these drugs to fill up nearly every big-league ballpark in the country. Most adults, as well as our federal government, continue to be oblivious to this ongoing epidemic.”

About The Taylor Hooton Foundation: The Taylor Hooton Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to educating North America’s young people about the dangers of anabolic steroids and other appearance and performance enhancing drugs. The friends and family of Taylor Hooton formed the Foundation in 2004 after his untimely death at 17 years old following his use of anabolic steroids.

For more information about the Taylor Hooton Foundation and its efforts, please visit www.taylorhooton.org.

One Response to TAYLOR HOOTON FOUNDATION STATEMENT ON ARBITRATION RULING

Mr. Hooton,
You blame your sons tragic suicide on anabolic steroids, but the reality is you don’t have an inkling of proof of what caused him to take his life. You claim over a million and a half of our middle- and high school children admit to using drugs that are illegal without a prescription, namely PEDs. Your sons tragic death and this million or so kids on steroids seems to be the center piece of your organization. I suggest these claims need to be scrutinized more carefully. I submit to you that the reason of your sons death and the claim by you of one and a half million children using PEDs needs to be cross-examined. I say this because you seem to use junk science and doctors of questionable ethics as the basis of your claims. Your medical researchers need to learn how to distinguish between cause and effect. If you have found that a million and a half children are using PEDs then you should demand that each child be drug tested to confirm said statement for the sake of accuracy. You wouldn’t wish to publish inaccurate data to support your claims would you? Research taken at face value has no value. If your purpose is to make unsubstantiated non peer reviewed claims then what you really have is an agenda of propaganda. I don’t mind your method of educating children for the greater good or condemning anabolic steroid use among professional ball players. But I’m a bodybuilder and it so happens I also get the condemnation fallout from your misinformation to eradicate anabolic steroids. You make my life more difficult and although you don’t care you should because I’m willing to spend time trying to unwind the misinformation and damage you do. Adult cosmetic anabolic steroid use needs to be decriminalized.
Here’s a fun fact you don’t know, testosterone is a natural hormone that controls the development and maintenance of male characteristics. Its not solely taken exogenously. As for the suspension of Alex Rodriguez, a ballplayer using steroids is not cheating any more than a ball club owner using his wealth to purchase the best ball players money can buy. Also if it were cheating the steroid ballplayer would be able to hit the ball out of the park every time no matter what. The perfect example of cheating is like in the Twilight Zone episode where Casey, a robot, has the ability to throw super-fast balls that cannot be hit. Of course the National League finds out and rules that Casey must be taken off the team.
Unfortunately as ballplayers age exogenous testosterone, (hormone replacement therapy) may be needed to treat metabolic syndrome to maintain their health and vigor. Something valued on the playing field. The foibles of human frailty demand as such to go into battle, because that’s where you find heroes.